Midnight Department Store - 'Black Friday' (5)
"How... isn't there any way?"
Jenny clung desperately, her voice thick with pleading. The confident poise she showed on broadcasts was gone, replaced entirely by the raw instinct to survive.
The D-rank hunter beside her chimed in frantically. "If you know anything, share it! We have to survive together!"
All eyes turned to me. I scratched my head, feigning embarrassment.
"I don't know for sure either. Just... my instincts are sharp."
"That's still better than us! Please! We'll do whatever you say!"
Jenny grabbed my arm, her voice breaking into sobs. I smirked inwardly.
Perfect. The board is set just right.
Then it came.
Crinkle... crinkle...
A sound like crumpling paper echoed from the darkness.
"Shh."
I pressed a finger to my lips, and the group fell silent as if doused with ice water.
Soon, they staggered into view.
Human torsos. But where heads should be, massive yellowed paper shopping bags covered them instead. Red crayon smiley faces grinned from the bags.
Grotesque mumbling.
"Hordes of Satan! Begone!"
Father Johan stepped forward, raising his rosary high. He pulled a vial of holy water from his robes and sprinkled it while chanting an exorcism.
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command you! Foul demon, fall into hell!"
Splash!
Holy water drenched the shopping bag monster. But it didn't burn—instead, the liquid just dripped harmlessly down the paper mask.
The red crayon mouth twisted even more grotesquely.
"H-Hiiik! It doesn't work!"
Someone screamed, and the terrified survivors instinctively backed away. But it was too late to run. Only two paths lay ahead: the left, a transparent glass wall at the show window (mannequin display); the right, the fitting room (changing area).
That's when the ghost story's voice whispered in my ear.
The answer was the show window. But I hesitated, scanning the group. Jenny trembling in terror, Father Johan in panic, the injured Ma Dong-pal, and the frightened participants. Too many uncontrolled people.
Everyone piling into the show window and pretending to be mannequins? Impossible. Someone would mess up, scream. One slip, and we'd be rats in a trap, slaughtered.
...Time to prune the branches.
I acted panicked, turning back.
"We have to hide! They can't see—their eyes are covered!"
I pointed to the fitting rooms on the right.
"There! Into the fitting rooms!"
"What? That's a dead end!"
Baek Si-woo stammered, but I shouted with conviction.
"Lock the door and it's a 'sealed room'! You know the rules of ghost stories and horror movies? Hide in 'personal space,' and they can't enter! That's the safe zone!"
My logic sounded airtight. Or rather, regardless of truth, "sealed room" was sweet temptation to the terrified.
"Move! I'm going first!"
Jenny shoved through, sprinting on pure survival instinct. The desperate girl who'd begged me moments ago had twisted into ugly selfishness: Me first.
"Me too!"
The D-rank hunter followed her into the next booth.
Bang! Bang! Click, click.
Doors slammed and locked in succession.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Jenny's ragged breathing leaked from behind the door. The rest rushed for the remaining booths—but there were only two.
"Hey! Open up!"
"There's room! Hurry!"
Kim Hyun-su and Baek Si-woo yanked the handles, but cold refusal came from inside.
"No! Too cramped!"
"Go elsewhere! Noise gives us away too!"
"You selfish bastards...!"
People cursed and pounded, but the two inside wouldn't budge.
Meanwhile, the bag-headed monsters closed in.
Scraaaape, scraaaape...
Eerie dragging across the floor.
"Damn! They're here!"
"What now?!"
I yelled amid the panic.
"Behind the show window! Hide behind the racks!"
I pointed to the narrow space behind the glass where mannequins stood.
No choice. We crammed silently behind the clothing racks, dense garments forming a curtain.
Scraaaape...
The monsters drew near. Red smiles gleamed in the dark on the bags. They tilted heads unnaturally, scanning.
Just five meters away. Discovery was inevitable.
But something was off.
The monsters ignored us behind the racks, poking clothes as if we were invisible. Instead...
Screeech, screeech.
They swarmed toward the fitting rooms where Jenny and the hunter hid, circling the locked doors.
Fitting room is the slaughterhouse, right?
So their first targets were the ones inside. I expected them to smash in and drag them out. But the monsters didn't try the doors. They just loitered like guards.
What the—? Why aren't they going in?
Then—
"Huh? What's with the clothes rack... Kyaaaah!"
Jenny's scream erupted from the fitting room.
"Let go! Kaaaaah! My body, my body!!"
The hunter in the next booth screamed too. But the doors stayed shut.
Then—
Riiiiip—!
A sickening, sticky tear like ripping duct tape from bare skin.
Mumbling from inside, and blood gushed from the door cracks like a flood.
"Guh!"
Baek Si-woo gagged, clamping his mouth. Kang Chae-young and Kim Hyun-su paled, shaking.
I knew this was my cue to act.
Thud.
I collapsed as if my strength failed, clutching my head.
"I was wrong... My... my idea was wrong... Because of me..."
Bam!
I punched the floor.
"I thought it was safe... It was a trap. I killed them...!"
Wretched self-blame. Anyone would see a man tormented by guilt after failing to save his comrades.
"Brother! Don't blame yourself!"
Father Johan gripped my shoulder, whispering comfort. His hands shook too.
"It's not your fault, oppa! Unnie rushed in first! You were trying to save us!"
Kang Chae-young defended me. But no time for sentiment.
The blood-scented monsters slowly turned toward our racks.
They approached. Time to reveal the real answer.
"...Eyes."
"What?"
"They have no eyes. They sense by sound, and for rule-based ghost stories..."
I pointed to the empty spot in the show window.
"Mannequins! Pretend to be mannequins!"
"What do you—"
"Climb up there and freeze! Act like products, not humans! Hurry!"
People snapped to, scrambling onto the show window. Kim Hyun-su and Baek Si-woo hoisted the injured Ma Dong-pal like luggage to a corner.
I took center stage. Held my breath, twisted an arm unnaturally, mimicking a mannequin.
Crinkle.
A monster approached my nose. Musty paper stench hit me.
Don't move.
I didn't breathe, didn't blink. It sniffed, cocking its head.
Heart-pounding tension. But soon, it lost interest and turned away.
The monsters shuffled past us toward the now-open fitting rooms.
Once they were fully inside, I signaled.
"Now. Run."
We bolted for the escalator.
Ding—ding—.
It started upward just as we arrived.
Only after the fourth floor receded did we gasp for air.
"Hahk, heuk... W-We survived..."
"Thought we were dead..."
Relief was brief. We reached the fifth floor, lit only by flashing red emergency lights.
"Ugh... urk."
Ma Dong-pal groaned through gritted teeth. His face was ashen, sweat pouring. His hand trembled clutching the stump.
"You okay?"
He couldn't answer, just heaved ragged breaths.
...Dead weight like this.
Cold calculation. Baggage drags you down at crucial moments.
Have to ditch him.
But I needed justification. Something good...
Then I spotted it: a massive Customer Satisfaction Center desk in the fifth-floor atrium.